Horse Feed Guide Info Please

[PaulandRuth]

My friend is about to take on her first horse and would welcome any advise you can give on feed types and quantity.

"Jasper" is a 7 year old Irish Cob gelding, who has been mostly field kept for the last 6 months.
He's approx 14.3 well rounded, and would welcome your comments on what food stuffs to introduce to his diet.

He will be stable kept overnight with hay and out to pasture during the day time.

I would guess his weight to be Approx. 350 kgs. he's a nice shape but would benefit from a bit more on his top line.

What are your views on sugar beet all year round??

Thanks in advance

[ros]

Hi Paul and Ruth

I think quite a few of us here are of the opinion that horses don't need much, if any, hard feed unless they're doing really hard work (which an hour or two hacking each day doesn't constitute, by the way!).

Horses are designed to eat forage, and to start with your friend would probably do best by giving Jasper plenty of good quality hay, with a broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement, maybe mixed with a little chaff like Dengie Alfa-A or Hi-Fi. Provided he's well-wormed he should survive quite well on that, and she can take her time to judge whether he puts on weight and need less, or whether he loses a little weight and needs a bit more. It's very tempting to feed horses nice things like coarse mix and sugar beet and all that stuff, but unless they really need it you just create problems. You can't make a laid-back horse more lively by giving it more hard feed, for example - you just make it fatter and lazier! It's largely a matter of common sense. Start simple and play it by ear.

By the wya, when you say the horse could do with a bit more on its top line, I assume it isn't well rounded as in bloated with worms! If it looks in good condition apart from its top line, it could be that lack of ridden exercise means the back muscles have dropped away a little, which should improve with a sensible exercise program. It could also be that bad riding or poorly fitting tack have caused a problem. I wouldn't be in a rush to "feed it up" till I knew the cause.

[Bebe]

I agree with Ros, most horses don't need much in the way of hard feed. My mare is ridden for a minimum of 3/4 of an hour each day (used to be an hour, lack of daylight is cutting down on riding time), lots of trotting and cantering usually. Up until recently she was on a not so great field on 24/7 turnout. I fed her a handful of Baileys Economy basic mix with the recommended amount of Feedmarks Benevit supplement, once a day. She did really well on this, shiny coat, good hooves and lots of energy.

This weekend she moved to a new field that has plentiful, good quality grass. I've now taken her off all feed so all she gets is a token carrot or two, twice a day. Once the quality of the grass starts to drop off I'll reintroduce the supplement and by November she'l probably be on a feed of mix and sugar beet (only once a day hopefully, carrots for breakfast).

Beet pulp is fantastic for winter but most horses don't need it during the summer.

I further agree with Ros in that the lack of a topline is probably due to lack of correct ridden work. If your friend takes the time to fitten him up properly, does hillwork, polework and maybe even the odd bit of gridwork, he'll soon develop a topline.

If you're really worried, most of the feed companies have nutritionists that will help you work out the most appropriate diet. Most will only recommend their feeds but even if you decide not to go with their brand, the advice will still be valid. Just run a search using the brand name (Baileys, Feedmark, Dengie, etc) and the websites should show up.

Amanda

[ros]

Hi Amanda (sorry Paul and Ruth!) -

I'm quite inteested that you like Feedmark's Benevit, I was thinking of giving it a whirl this winter.

Also, I've spoken to various feed manufacturers on different occasions and they've always been very helpful, but in your experience do you think they overestimate the amount of feed horses need? I usually read the recommended quantities on their packaging and AT LEAST halve it! Dog food manufacturers seem to be the same - if I fed my dogs the amounts they tell me I should they'd all be so fat they wouldn't be able to walk!

[Bebe]

Hi Ros

Benevit is a good product, I've been using it for just over a month and did see a change in my horses coat (and even her winter coat is growing in shiny) and she had a little bit more spring in her step. It smells awful though and took a bit of tempting to get Bebe to eat it. In the end making her tiny amount of mix into sludge with hot water did the trick.

I think the nutritionists do tend to overestimate the amount needed, although a lot of the time they go on the recommended weights to get all the right nutrients in the feed. The amounts I was told were correct when I first got Bebe, but she was around 200lbs underweight, so I did want to get weight on her. If I fed the 6lbs of mix that they recommend now, she'd explode (she gets a couple of 100grams with the supplement and is just right). I highly doubt that I'll feed any more than around 2lbs of mix plus a bit of sugar beet this winter, hence the use of Benevit.

Still, I think that they're a good starting point if you don't have much experience with feeding and having a baseline idea makes it much easier to experiment to see what's right for your horse, at least it did for me.

Oh, Feedmark have a website and if you order over it they provide free 48 hour delivery which was a big bonus for me as none of my feed shops stock it and I gave up on ordering it through them.

Amanda

[PaulandRuth]

Thanks Ros & Bebe , will print out your advise and pass on to Lisa.